Warner Archive Discussion Thread (FEEDBACK) - Page 118

Warners new release of RHAPSODY IN BLUE is a gorgeous, new transfer for this title. Not only was it a great addition to have that 10 minute “Overture,” but the entire film looked and sounded better than ever. In fact, I think the sound must be about the best of any 40s Warner Bros film I have heard on video. You can hear every detail and the fullness and power of the expanded WB orchestra is superb. I showed it on a 103 inch screen and it up-converts and looks as good as pressed DVDs from the major studios. I ordered this title when it was an exclusive, so I have had it for awhile, but wanted to wait and comment on it when it went to general release through the archives. And it has the original trailer. There is no comparison to this exellent transfer and the one that has played on TCM for years. It looks and sounds like they went from nitrate masters. A MAJOR upgrade.

Well . . . . I'll have to buy it then. You leave me no choice!

Same here.  Haven't seen or thought about this film in ... uh, decades.  Now it sounds like a must-have.  

Nice 5 for $45 sale. Been waiting for a sale like this to pick a few up:

THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE
THE PHANTOM OF HOLLYWOOD
DYING ROOM ONLY
GILDA LIVE
GIVE A GIRL A BREAK


All worthwhile, more-so at this price.

Yes but that sale ended on 1/16.

The current deal is not so great. $10 off 2 or more discs. Doesn't matter how many you buy --it's just $10 off even if you buy more than two.

Also if you normally get the 'insider" rate ($17.95 instead of $19.95 on single discs) they won't take the $10 off the insider price. I tried ordering two discs that showed up as $17.95 each when I clicked on them. However when I placed them in the shopping cart, one showed up as $17.95, the other showed up as $9.95 ($19.95 minus $10). In other words I'd save only $8.00 instead of $10. I called customer service about this and they confirmed that this was correct.
I'm going to wait for a better offer. It's not the $2.00 -- it's the fact that they didn't clearly explain the conditions of this deal anywhere on their site.

Warners new release of RHAPSODY IN BLUE is a gorgeous, new transfer for this title. 

 

I also have the Exclusive along with The Great Waltz(Korjus) and I concur with Rhapsody in Blue. However, The Great Waltz was a number of shades down in quality in comparison. Great to have both and had not seen Rhapsody in Blue for decades. 

Very cool to see some old 70s TV movies now available from Warner Archive. Has anyone here ever seen a VHS or DVD release for "Satan's Triangle" (mid-70s, ABC movie of the week)? I was able to get a VHS recording of it from one of the first years of the Sci-Fy Channel and really hoped someone might do a DVD release. I can't imagine it being worthy of a restoration or anything special, but it was a pretty good mystery movie.

Its Groundhog Day special (25% off most titles, including Sony's, which is the lowest they get) runs through 2/6. The Archive is now distributing MGM MODs, but you can usually get them cheaper off Amazon.

Very interesting about them picking up the MGM MODs for retail on their site. They're doing pretty well consolidating all of the MOD onto that site. I'm sure it will help sales of the MGM discs, like it probably did with the Columbia Classics.

Could this be the reason for the delay in press releases of new MGM titles--WBShop will be advertising new releases as they had been for Columbia?

Now all that's left is for the meager Universal program to join the fold.

Quite possibly. It's high time for more MGM and Universal titles, and for the Lionsgate MOD to begin.

Having all the MODs sold at one place allows them to try and sustain the artificially high price of $19.99. It's a basic fact of economic life: when companies make agreements to work together, forming cartels, they can fix or set prices to whatever they want. They don't have to sell at the price that a fair market or demand dictates.

With MODs, I feel $9.99 - $14.95 is a price more in keeping with a fair market and demand. Warner seems to recognize this too, with all their sales knocking the price down into this range.

To make a profit, the cost of making an item has to be less than its price. There are two possibilities:

High productivity at low prices -- produce a great number of items and charge a low price
Low productivity at high prices -- produce a small number of items and charge a high price

Apparently, the successful business model for MOD is the latter, low productivity at high prices. But I don't quite understand why the price has to be so high. I doubt the total cost of manufacturing a MOD disc, including everything involved, is any more than $5, and that's being generous. Where is all that extra profit going to?

Also, would the opposite business model, high productivity at low prices, really give these MOD companies less of a profit than they have now? I wish they'd try and see. These MOD discs are available not only at the wbshop, but amazon, deep discount, and other places on the web. This means they have already produced a large number of them, there is some sort of high productivity. They should experiment with a price drop too and see what happens. Maybe they will make even more money.
Edited by jdee28 - 2/3/12 at 5:18pm

 

A lot of good thoughts, but Sony has continued to sell on other sites, such as Amazon and Movies Unlimited, but Warner is the only site that offered a sale on the Sony titles.  MGM will, I am sure still be sold on Amazon, Movies Unlimited and SAE, along with other sites.  None of those sights have offered the MGM discs for a discount, except Amazon.  I don't see how adding the WAC site is going to continue to keep the price high.  The more sites that sell the titles the better the possibility of someone having a sale.
 

 

Deep Discount--I know, I know --has had at least one sale on the Sony titles. They were there for $12 or so a pop. I wish I'd taken advantage of that sale then.

I left them off, because they may have sale, but it takes 10 years for the title to get shipped to you. 

 

After waiting three months for three titles, I wrote them off my site list to order.  Went as far as sending an email telling them to discontinue sending me sale emails.  I think the cc to a lawyer friend of mine got their attention. 

 

Yeah, it's too bad their service and prices took such a downward turn over the years. At one time, they were about the best. That's why I added this to my previous post. That said, I'd STILL be willing to wait a few months for some Sony MOD titles at $12 with free shipping. I definitely have enough of a backlog on unwatched physical media to keep me afloat.

Just watched The Hard Way with Ida Lupino from the Archive . At the beginning of the film , with Ida talking to her husband in the kitchen , the screen fills up with small square pixels . I'm not sure if that would be the correct term for what they are are not . But that's the best description i have . It only lasts for a second or two . This is the second copy of this film i have received from the WB archive . Both have the exact same issue at the same place in the film . I checked my recorded copy from tcm and the issue isn't there .

Has anyone else bought this film from the WB Archive ? If so does it have the same issue ? I guess i will ask for my money back . I've had a few problems in the past with similar problems and they never were corrected (Adventures of Mark Twain ,Malaya and Above and Beyond ) .

It seems that Warner started a Warner Archive sibling in Germany via Amazon.de: http://www.amazon.de/b/ref=amb_link_162979527_1?ie=UTF8&node=1625223031&pf_rd_m=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&pf_rd_s=special-product-offers-3&pf_rd_r=0ZBJKR9GR88TB2CR7PVQ&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=282248647&pf_rd_i=B0071CQRQG

Perhaps the international rollout is beginning.

Try a few other machines - perhaps even your computer's DVD-ROM drive as well - to see if the same issue occurs in the same place. The player you are using might not be perfectly compatible with the DVD-R media they are using.

I'd echo that advice. It's certainly possible for some players to be particularly sensitive - it's even possible that there are minor problems with the encoding but which do not cause actual glitches on most players.

My old Pioneer player was prone to that, and would give the "screen of pixels" on rare occasions on discs that would play perfectly in every other player I could find, from the very cheapest supermarket one in a friend's house to my newer Panasonic player. The Panasonic is particularly robust and will often cope with problematic discs like those awful Universal double sided things.

Sometimes errors like that are corrected by making a new copy and playing that. Doesn't always work but does most often, though. Better than having to send off for another copy & return the original at one's own expense. Experience has been cheapo machines from an Aldi Supermarket play these things better than famous brands. I have referred in other blogs about some features on the CreateSpace made WACs are troublesome and won't play all Menu titles on a disc but will on the computer or another machine. 

Thanks to those who responded to my question . As far as trying different machines , i did try many . We have 5 dvd and blu ray players in the house . Including a Panny dvd player . All showed the pixels . WB shop told me , a little over a week ago , that they were sending word to the tech area to check into the issue . Still no word back . Worse case is they refund my money . I would rather have the movie .

I found with these discs that when one of them pixels, they pixel on all my machines, my computer and laptop included.

Usually:

If you get a problem like this, and it's on one disc but not a replacement, it's a manufacture problem (or in this case, maybe a burn problem)

If it appears on a replacement as well, and espescially if it's consistent (ie same problem, same place) then it probably indicates a problem with the encoding. With pressed discs it might also indicate a problem on the glass master which then gets replicated across all copies but that can't happen with MOD, since the master is a data file.

Inconsistent, but frequent, problems indicate a manufacture problem too (as with those awful Mexican produced DVD18s that Universal used). The faults were very often there, but inconsistently.

I got to see the Warner Archive's recent release of the Bogart movie Conflict (1945). The film has been digitally remastered from some source, but more than likely not the original elements, as the details in the blacks are very poor. Given that this is a film noir with atmospheric lighting done by a director who had training in the German expressionist school, not being able to see clearly what's going on in the dark elements of the screen really takes away a lot from the entertainment of this movie. The print also has splices, which some times occur when characters are talking, resulting in some missed dialogue.

All in all, very disappointing. You think for a Bogart film, that they would do a better, like maybe go back to the original elements and do a slight bit of restoration. Sure it's digitally remastered, but from a bad source with little clear details in the blacks.

Just to finish up on this issue . I called WBshop at the end of last week . They told me that they sent a request for the elements to be checked and deemed that they were fine . I told the person i spoke with that i doubted that the issue was ok and that the film did not originally have the pixel issue . She then told me that they would not be correcting the glitch at this point . So i asked for my money back and after a switch to a supervisor received credit back on my card .

When the Archive program started i had a similar issue on a couple of their releases . I got nowhere on those problems either . Since then i haven't had a problem that hasn't been corrected . Till now . I hope this is the last time this comes up .

Any word on tomorrow's release other than the three musicals?

Can you wait until tomorrow?

Here you go: http://warnerarchive.tumblr.com/post/19608777127/new-releases-triple-threats

I see that The Archive has just released Victor/Victoria and S.O.B. to replace the out-of-print pressed DVDs. I guess this means they have no intention to bring them out on Blu-ray. I was so hoping for a Victor/Victoria Blu-ray